Human
by satincarsonvaine
Summary: Satin is seeking Castor for help in the Grid. Little does she know he is Zuse. CastorxOC oneshot OOC Castor


Chapter One: Tron: the Beginning of the End  
>"Someone is going to catch us Max," you said nervously looking over your shoulder. The surrounding streets where empty, barely lit by the orangey-yellow glow of old street lamps. The air was warm but the ground was wet from the downpour from earlier in the day giving an overall musky feel to the dead streets, "So what if they do? When have we ever not been able to escape, (First Name)?" he said as the lock off the front of the arcade fell to the ground with a clank. He stood up and nodded at you with a satisfied chuckle before turning to pull back the guarding metal gates. "Would you like to do the honors?" he asked. You turned and checked the streets one last time before looking at Grant Maximus with a devious smile. He smiled back at you and gestured towards the doors. Without another thought you walked forward and pushed the front doors to the arcade open.<br>The street light poured through the open space giving a dim lighting to the large room. Max pulled out his flashlight and began to walk down the rows of old video games pulling the dusted rags off them. "Aw man look, Dig Dug. Remember when we were kids we used to always blow our money on this game? So mom and dad got us that PS1 when we were nine and then dad built us our own Dig Dug but the little characters look like us?" You paused and your head dropped at the mention of your parents. "They didn't look like us," you muttered turning your flashlight on and looking around for the electricity box. Max wiped the dust off the screen and laughed, "Yeah, it really sucked actually. But we loved it anyways…" his voice trailed off. There was a heavy silence in the air almost as thick as the dust that covered the ground.  
>You ended the silence as you found the box and flipped the switch that activated all the games. Suddenly the arcade to came to life in an explosion of light and eighties music. You turned your flashlight off, put it back in your tattered leather backpack and dropped it on the ground. As you approached your brother he handed you a quarter. You smiled and put it in the machine to activate the game. You took your turns trying to beat each other's high scores, reliving happy childhood memories and forgetting the bad ones. Once you had run out of quarters, Max turned the machine around and began to pry open the back panel to retrieve the quarters so you could play again. As he did, you wandered around uncovering the dusty machines and smiling at the old memories you had tied to arcades similar to the one you were standing it. Rally-X, Ms, Pac Man, Galaga, Mappy (that one you made a face at because you never saw the point in it, plus you always lost), Gee Bee, King &amp; Balloon, Xevious, all stacked next to each other forming the main isle in the old abandoned building.<br>You smiled and looked down at all the old but familiar control set ups on the games. But your smile quickly faded as another cloaked game sitting against the back wall of the arcade caught your attention. It was, what looked to be, the largest game in the whole place and it was presented on its own with no other games surrounding it. You walked over and pulled back the sheet, coughing in the wake of the dust that went flying from it. In large glowing blue letters read, "Tron."Your eyes turned to slits as you could not recall ever hearing of this particular game before. "Hey, Max," you called over your shoulder, not being able to take your eyes off the strangely alluring mystery game, "Hey, what?" he grunted from behind the machine as he moved parts around to retrieve the change. "I wanna play this one next," you said. "Sure," he called back just as distracted. When he finally had your change back he shoved the machine into its respective place and walked up behind you.  
>He, too, froze in amazement at the game. "What is this?" he asked. "I have no idea," you responded. You both continued to stare at the game until he finally broke the silence, "I bet I can beat you at it, whatever it is." You look up at his sly smile and elbowed him. "Bring it on, old man," you laugh. He pulled out a quarter and put it in the slot, then you two readied yourselves for whatever came across the screen next… But nothing happened. Confused, Max put in another quarter, but again nothing happened. This time you both leaned down to look at the slot. You pushed the key belonging to your warehouse into the slot after the coins. Both fell out of the return slot and on to the floor, Max picked one up and pushed it back through the machine. It spit the coin back out on to the ground. "The heck?" he mumbled under his breath, sitting on the ground and examining the coin for answers.<br>You sat on the ground next to him as you said, "I don't think there's an algorithm you can crack in that quarter to make it work in the machine." He grumbled in response which made you laugh. But your laughter was short-lived as you noticed scratches on the floor next to the machine. You traced your finger along the scratches as you said, "Look at the floor, it seems as if it's been moved around a lot, the machine is probably broken."Max followed your gaze to the ground then stood up. "Move," he said as he got one arm behind it. "Maybe I can fix it," he grunted as he pushed it. But surprisingly to you both, the game slid aside on its hinges. You glanced at each other before your eyes catch something behind him on the concrete wall. "What's that?" you ask, pointing towards your brother. He looks down at his clothes, "What?"You shake your head as you push past him, "Not you, idiot, behind you."  
>He turned around to see you pointing at a door. "Oh," he said, "I wonder why that's there." You turn to him, "Where do you suppose it leads?"He rose an eyebrow at you and grabbed the handle, "Only one way to find out." You smiled back at him as you reached for your flashlight once more. He pulled the door open to reveal a long dark stone stair case covered in spider's webs. As you squinted to see the end of the tunnel with your dim flashlight your brother stood behind you and said, "Ladies first." Your expression goes blank as you turn around to glare at him. He looks between you and the spider webbed tunnel, "What? You're the one with the flashlight, it only makes sense." You rolled your eyes and began to cut through the webs with your hand, occasionally pausing to wipe it off on your pants. When you reached the bottom of the stairs, you notice a clicking sound; the Tron door closed behind the both of you. "Well, onward, I suppose," you say as your brother stares nervously at the closed door. To your left was another set of doors. Without hesitation you pushed them open and a cloud of dust came back into your face. You cough and wave away at it with your flashlight until it calms.<br>"Whoa," Max said, taking the flashlight from you and heading into the room. "What the heck is this?" he asked. You follow him into the dim room and look around. There were papers, technology and other personal items scattered about. On a couch across from the doors was a blanket and remote, both were in such a way it looked like someone had just slept there a few minutes before; which would have been impossible considering the thickness of dust that covered it. Behind the couch was a bulletin board with pictures of a man and boy. You study it for a moment before being interrupted by a large crash. You jump and turn around to look for the source of the noise. Max was standing by a strange looking machine with a guilty look on his face and a piece of metal in his hands. "What are you doing?" you whisper loudly. He shrugged his shoulders over dramatically and again you sigh and roll your eyes at him.  
>The next thing you noticed were the papers pinned and taped all along the walls. While your brother fiddles around with the machine in the back part of the room, you try to make sense of the blueprints and notes. Some things you could understand, some of it was about programming but it was much too advance for you to grasp. As you placed your hands over the glass table to lean forward and read the papers on the wall the table lit up. You looked down to see the words, "System Boot," type itself across the screen so you step back and watch. Underneath the words, "Checking Data," appeared, "System Error." The word error blinked in and out repeatedly. "Hey Grant, check this out," you say still watching the words underneath the layer of dust. "Oh, no- no, no. You just called me Grant. Nope, I'm staying over here," he said, still fiddling around with the strange machine still. You sigh, "Okay, the Napster, come over here."He let out a fake, over exaggerated laugh as he yelled, "OH YOU'RE SO FUNNY, YOU MADE A REFERENCE TO THAT DUMB MOVIE, LIKE I'VE NEVER HEARD THAT ONE BEFORE, HAH!"<br>You turned around to glare at him but cracked up laughing at the ridiculous face he was making. "The Italian Job is a fantastic movie, quit hatin' on it, you loser," you say as you turn back around to wait for the screen to say something else. He laughed in return then looked back to the machine. As he was poking and prodding at it with a pair of wire clippers an odd sound reverberated through the walls. You look up momentarily but dismiss it as you look back at the screen. The words, "Not Ready," came across the screen. As you stand squinting and wondering what it meant your brother continued to mess around behind you.  
>Suddenly the sound came again, only louder this time than the last; it pulled you off your train of thought which aggravated you. You turn around swiftly to reprimand your brother but when you see his face it was frozen in panic. Before you had a chance to ask what the problem was you feel a shift in gravity that pulled you forward and backward at the same time. A rush of air blew your hair back and your vision went fuzzy. Next thing you know you are staring at the ceiling. In a daze you look around to ask your brother what happened but he is no longer in the room with you. "Max?" you call out confused. Before you have a change to call out his name again, you look around and notice you are no longer standing in the room that you had entered but a different, more simple, (and cleaner) version of it. Your heart beat begins to pick up as you know something has gone terribly wrong. "Max?" you call out again, as you run out of the room. "Grant Maximus!" your voice cracked and hit a high pitch that had never before escaped your mouth.<br>You ran up the stairs, back into the arcade, (which you did not notice in your haste was empty) and out to the street. "Maximus!" you scream at the top of your lungs, looking down every different street nearby before choosing a random one and running down it. As you run, your heart beating in your ears, your lungs on fire, and your legs weakening, you vaguely begin to notice your surroundings. It was no longer that of the Los Angeles City that you left behind… But instead something else that was completely indescribable, you had never seen anything like it before. As you lose concentration on your running and more to your surroundings you tripped over yourself and fell to the ground. Panting, you attempted to collect yourself and get back on your feet. Being too distracted by your own self-pity you didn't take notice in the humming noise approaching you from behind. And before you can even think of what to do next you are suddenly blinded by a light from above


End file.
